Title

Authors

Published In

Physics of Fluids

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2001

Subjects

Fluid dynamics, Fluid mechanics, Capillarity

Abstract

Capillary flow of a sinusoidally perturbed liquid column in an interior corner of infinite extent is solved using lubrication theory. Due primarily to the length scales selected to nondimensionalize the momentum equation, an analytic time scale governing the settling of the perturbation is determined. The time scale, which is shown to be independent of a steady base state flow, proves useful in rapidly predicting transients for surface settling in certain liquid-bearing tanks of spacecraft employing interior corners for fluids management purposes. The asymptotic analysis is extended to address flows along interior corners whose faces are slightly nonplanar. The generalized formulation is presented for the case of a perfectly wetting fluid in a second-order polynomial corner. A leading-order analytic solution for small corner angles is provided. It is shown that a "convex corner" decreases the response time of the liquid and increases the capillary flow rate along the corner by increasing both the driving force and cross-sectional area of the flow. Gravity acting normal to the corner axis along the bisector of the corner angle is also considered and is found to accelerate, decelerate, or destabilize such flows depending on its sign and magnitude.

Description

This is the publisher's final PDF. Copyright 2001 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.